chicagoland GEographies
Black life in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, also known as Chicagoland, is often reduced to the iconic South Side through selected neighborhoods, community areas, blocks, and streets, which ignore the depths of the South Side and the Black livingness that exists on other sides of town and in the suburbs, villages, and unincorporated areas that make up the city-region.
To make sense of the geography in our work and how we use spatial theories and concepts to challenge the limited maps and cartographic logics that map Black life across our city-region, we have included information to help you understand the spatial organization of Chicagoland. This information will help you identify where our images and sound installations were taken, which capture the full geographic scope of our work and a broader history and geography of our people. The geographies of Chicagoland are intricate, contested, and always shifting, and consist of various definitions, understandings, and lived realities that are subjectively and objectively defined by residents, real estate companies, and governing bodies throughout the city-region.
CHICAGOLAND
A colloquial term that refers to the Chicago Metropolitan Area, reflecting the social, political, economic, cultural, ecological, and geographic relations between Chicago and its northern, southern, eastern, and western hinterlands. These hinterlands include satellite cities, suburbs, villages, and unincorporated and rural areas. Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, introduced the term "Chicagoland" to describe the city-region in the 1920s.
Chicagoland includes Chicago and four suburban subregions hugging the city's borders, as well as Northwest Indiana, Northeast Illinois, and Southeast Wisconsin. Although it has no official or legal boundaries, the United States Census Bureau established the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area (Chicago MSA and Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL–IN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area) in 1950 based on economic activity and population density across the city-region.
Photo Credit - Deviant Art
community areas
Chicago is divided into 77 community areas designed by the Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago in 1920. These boundaries remain static to gather data about the city that can be analyzed over time. Five criteria to denote community area boundaries include:
- Settlement, growth, and history of the area
- Local identification with the area
- Local trade area
- Distribution of membership of local institutions
- Natural and artificial barriers
Chicago was originally broken down by 75 community areas. However, a 76th community area (O'Hare) formed when Chicago annexed O’Hare International Airport in the 1950s. In 1980, the community area of Edgewater separated from Uptown creating the 77th community area. Most Chicagoans do not recognize community areas as the places in which they live and many are unaware that they exist. Click here to access an interactive community area map.
Check the list below for all community areas organized by name and number. To denote where our images and sound recordings are taken, we include the name and number of the corresponding community area to make it easier to find these locations on most standard maps of Chicago.
Photo Credit: WBEZ
neighborhoods
Chicago is known as “the city of neighborhoods," with each maintaining unique, identifiable characteristics. Most Chicagoans recognize neighborhoods as the places where they live, work, and socialize. Because of this, some neighborhoods that Black Chicagoans have renamed to reclaim space do not appear on most Chicago maps. For example, Bronzeville, one of the most historic Black neighborhoods in the world, does not appear on most city-region maps.
Neighborhoods are located within community areas, and some even share the same name as the community area that they are located in (e.g., Rogers Park). In contrast, others do not, including Bronzeville, which is within the community areas of Grand Boulevard, Douglas, and Oakland. Community areas and neighborhoods are used interchangeably by Chicagoans, but there are significant differences, including size, boundary, socio-demographics, and historical change.
In 1993, the city council approved a map of Chicago neighborhoods based on a community survey conducted in 1978. Click here to access an interactive version of this map. Still, according to the City of Chicago, "City government does not recognize or use Chicago neighborhood boundaries for any official purposes."
Photo Credit: Giordanos
sides of town
Chicago consists of various "sides of town" based on cardinal (north, south, east, west) and intercardinal (northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast) directions. The City of Chicago recognizes three sides of town (north, south, west) represented by the white stripes on the city’s flag. The Chicago River defines these regional divisions, although the boundaries vary among Chicagoans and real estate companies. If you listen close enough, you can hear the distinct ways Black Chicagoans identify the sides of town, including out south (south side), out west (west side), up north (north side), and over east (east side).
Based on the street numbering system, Madison Street is the north | south dividing line and State Street is the east | west dividing line. The South Side (the largest side of town) is defined as the community areas that are south of the main branch of the Chicago River. The North Side (the most densely populated side of town) consists of areas that are north of the main branch of the Chicago River. The West Side (the smallest side of town) maintains community areas west of the Chicago River. The city does not recognize an East Side (not to be confused with the East Side community area) because Lake Michigan dominates the city’s eastern boundary.
Although the East Side is not listed on the corresponding map, some Chicagoans (including us) and real estate companies recognize it as a "side of town" and its distinct culture.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
suburban subregions
Chicagoland is a unique city-region due to its complex makeup of suburban subregions that decorate the city's outer ring on its north, south, and west sides. These suburban subregions, the North Shore, the Northwest Suburbs, the West Suburbs, and the South Suburbs, consist of suburban cities, villages, towns, and unincorporated areas.
The North Suburbs — also known as the North Shore — is north of the city and includes Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Northbrook, Lake Forest, Winnetka, and Glencoe.
The Northwest Suburbs — Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Niles, Buffalo Grove, Rosemont, and Palatine.
The West Suburbs, which hug the most western border of the city, include Maywood, Berwyn, Oak Park, Melrose Park, Cicero, Oak Brook, and Naperville.
The South Suburbs — also known as the Chicago Southland — include Blue Island, Chicago Heights, Orland Park, Park Forest, Tinley Park, Harvey, Flossmoor, Robbins, and Olympia Fields.
Photo Credit - Unknown
chicago southland (south suburbs)
Chicago Southland — also known as the South Suburbs of Chicago or South Suburban Cook County — is a suburban subregion consisting of 65 suburban cities, villages, and unincorporated areas, twenty miles south/southwest of downtown Chicago. The Southland stretches across Cook County (the county seat of Chicago, the most populous county in Illinois, and the second most populous county in the United States) and Will County (the county seat of Joliet, Illinois).
Several suburban cities, villages, and towns across the Southland, including Evergreen Park, Dolton, Blue Island, Chicago Ridge, Riverdale, and Calumet Park, border Chicago on its south, southwest, and southeast sides. There are over 800,000 residents who call Chicago Southland their home, and many Southlanders work, socialize, and have family, friends, and colleagues who live in Chicago while maintaining long-standing roots in the suburbs back to the mid to late 1800s.
Chicago Southland also has the largest population of Black suburban residents in Chicagoland. Despite ongoing systemic struggles preventing many Black Americans from purchasing a home, the Southland has some of the highest rates of Black homeownership in the United States. In 2018, Pew Charitable Trusts recorded Black homeownership rates at 80% or higher in several Black suburbs in the Southland, including South Holland (85%), Flossmoor (83%), Matteson (80%), and Lynwood (80%). Olympia Fields, also a suburb of the Southland, has a 98% Black homeownership rate and an all Black board of trustees who govern their village.
Photo Credit - Visit Chicago Southland
collar counties
The North Shore, Northwest Suburbs, the West Suburbs, and the South Suburbs are also part of the Chicago Metropolitan Area's Collar Counties. The Collar Counties consist of five administrative counties, including McHenry, Will, DuPage, Lake, and Kane counties, with each surrounding Cook County.
Chicago is the county seat for Cook County (or what some Chicagolanders call “crook county" due to its history of political corruption, high taxes, unjust legal system, and racism) and remains the center county of Chicagoland. Cook County has the largest population, with the remaining Collar Counties maintaining the largest number of residents across Illinois. Each of the Chicago suburban subregions overlaps at least two of the Collar Counties, and some also fall within Cook County's boundaries.
Photo Credit - Railia and Associates